Here We Stand and Here We Fall
by The Younger Mann
Summary: A story of survival in a dying world
1. Chapter 1

**Episode 1: Here We Stand**

The walkers came a few weeks into the epidemic. Almost everything had been closed down and quarantined, but the military secured my school "to further the pursuit of a good education during these trying times". At least that's what Principal Berm said.

They didn't stand a chance.

I watched from the fifth floor window of my science class as a herd of undead monsters moaned and limped their way toward the school. The soldiers did their best to fend them off, but the sound of the gunfire only drew more in.

Panic hit the entire school like a lightning strike as the walkers ate their way into our sanctuary.

**Five Months Later…**

"Erik!"

I snapped back into focus. The walker was coming closer, gnashing its teeth. Usually, they don't come near the kitchens where the army had stored the food, but this one, and a few others, had made their way in. I pulled my machete from its black leather sheath on my thigh. It was made of black steel, and it had a leather grip.

The walker reached out to me with its dead arms.

"Come on! Kill it!" John Dawson was behind the walker. He carried a heavy assault rifle and a metal bat. "Come on!"

I swung the swung the blade down as hard as I could, lodging it into the walker's skull. When I pulled it out, it made a loud _shunk_ sound, and it fell it fell to the ground.

"Is it dead?" asked Andy Brauning. He was a shorter, middle-aged man with a good amount of fat. His black hair was curly and sweaty. He carried a shotgun and a backpack.

I kicked the walker. It was still, unmoving in a pool of blood.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Guys," a small voice said. "We need to get out of here." It was Lucas, a tall, skinny, and fidgety man in his late forties with a hunting rifle clutched in his hands. He kept glancing around with his paranoid eyes.

"We're fine, Lucas," John stated. "Come on, we'll get the food and get back to the roof."

"O-okay," Lucas stuttered.

We all moved towards the back room where all of the food was. The entire room used to be wall-to-wall food, but now, there was only a mere pile in the back corner. We only had enough food for maybe a week.

I looked over the pitiful pile of food and shook my head. "John, what are we going to do?"

"No," John whispered. "We aren't talking about this right now. We're fine. I'll send Lily and Samson to make another supply run tomorrow."

"No," I replied. "You're not sending Lily out there again. She almost got bitten last time. Arnold _did_ get bitten! She barely made it out!"

John moved toward me swiftly, standing in front of me looking down. "I am in charge here not you. I give orders to keep you safe. I've done a good job so far, so get off my back!"

I looked down. Andy and Lucas were silent. John looked away and took a step back.

"Look," he said. "I'm sorry. I—"

"No," I interrupted. "You're right. I'm sorry."

I knelt down and started to pack cans of food into my backpack. John ran his hand through his brown hair and pointed at Lucas.

"You," he said. "You stand guard."

Lucas nodded and left the storage room. Andy and John knelt down and started filling their packs as well. About ten minutes passed. We were almost done, but we were cut short when we heard shots outside. John quickly zipped his pack and grabbed his gun. I handed my pack to Andy.

"Finish this up," I told him, and I pulled my gun out.

Outside, Lucas was firing into a large crowd of walkers. There were about twenty or so, coming in from the school commons through the wide opening to the kitchen. They approached slowly on decaying legs. Lucas fired blindly and wildly.

"They just keep coming!" Lucas shouted.

John moved forward and grabbed his gun. "Then stop firing you idiot!"

John pulled out his bat and struck a walker that had gotten close. It fell in a heap on the floor. More walkers filed into the kitchen.

"Too late!" I called and took aim at a walker.

BAM!

Its head exploded.

"We need to make a run for it!" I shouted.

"Through that?" Lucas replied.

"It's the only way."

John moved forward. "Follow me!" He unloaded a rain of bullets on the crowd and formed an opening. He ran through, and I followed him. Andy waddled after me, and Lucas took the rear. We ran through the commons toward a long hallway. At the end of that hallway was a stairwell that would carry us to the roof, our sanctuary.

I ran as fast as I could, and I didn't stop even when I heard Lucas's horrifying shrieks as walkers took him. We got to the stairwell with a horde of walkers pursuing us. I knew once we got up the stairs we would be safe. Walkers were slow, and they didn't climb well. John and I started going up the stairs two steps at a time. Andy was a few seconds behind us. I looked back, and he was clutching his forearm. Blood was seeping through his fingers.

"What is that?!" I asked.

He looked at me with guilty eyes. "I…I cut it on a piece of metal in the kitchen."

I didn't believe him, but walkers were getting closer. We ran up the stairs, and our pursuers tripped and fell over each other, trying to follow us.

We made it to the second floor, then the third, and as I ran past the double doors to the fourth floor, they were pushed open. Two walkers jumped out. One of them ran to John, and the other tackled me. It fell on top of me, trying to bite me. It took all of my strength to hold it back.

"ERIK!" John called. I heard a gunshot.

"I got it!" I called back. The walker snapped at me, so I shoved the gun into its mouth.

BAM!

Blood sprayed all over the back wall and ran onto my shirt. My ears rang so badly that when John pulled the walker off of me, I couldn't hear a word he said. I just saw his mouth move.

"Come on! Get up!" I eventually heard him say.

I did, and we climbed another flight of stairs to the fifth floor. There, ran hurried through two more hallways. They were mostly deserted, but a few walkers remained. We got to the ladder to the roof safely. I climbed up first, opening the metal hatch and letting in waves of sunlight.

We lived on the roof in makeshift tents and shelters. We had a dirt pile for campfires. There was only one way in and one way out. We had weapons from the fallen soldiers down below. We were fortified and safe. We've been here from the beginning, and we'll be here 'til the end. This is my school, my roof, and my home.

So here we stand.


	2. Chapter 2 Tough Choices

Episode 2: Tough Choices

Andy collapsed while carrying wood to the fire. It was nighttime, and I was cuddling with Lily in front of the flames. Everyone else was around the bonfire as well. There was John, Principal Berm who sat with his wife and two kids, my friend Logan, Gabriel Harper, a surgeon who had made it out of the hospital across the street, brothers Daniel and Spencer Wright, Roger Black who was sitting with two kids, my school counselor Cynthia Brooks with her husband and three kids, war veteran Albert Hamm, Brett Rogers, Ellis Jackman, and soldiers Joshua Barnes, Samson Edge, and Rebecca Soren.

Andy fell right behind me, and the wood he was carrying fell on top of me. Pieces of wood rolled into the coals, spraying sparks everywhere. He fell on his back in a large thud.

"Oh no! Andy!" Cynthia called. She got up and ran over to him.

"What happened?" John asked, coming around from the opposite side of the bonfire.

"Andy passed out!" Cynthia replied.

"Gabriel!" Principal Berm shouted.

Gabriel got up from where he was sitting and rushed over to Andy.

"What's wrong with him?" Spencer questioned.

Gabriel ran his hand along the bloody bandage on Andy's forearm, and I knew what he was going to say before he did.

"He was bitten," I said solemnly. Gabriel peeled off the wrappings and nodded.

Daniel was on me in seconds. He grasped my shirt and threw me to the ground. John stepped between us and held Daniel back as Lily helped me back up.

"You knew he was bit, and you didn't say anything?!" Daniel shouted.

"I didn't know then," I retorted. "I saw that he was hurt, but he told me it was just a cut!"

"You put us all in danger!" Daniel screamed. "What if he had turned?! We have kids here!"

"Daniel, calm down." It was Spencer, Daniel's brother. "He couldn't have known that Andy was bitten, and even if he had, what was he supposed to do?"

"He should have killed him!" I heard Ellis say. "He has a gun! He should have used it!"

"Enough!" shouted Berm. "Gabriel, get Andy into a tent. Daniel, Spencer, help him. Everyone else just calm down and try to get some sleep. Gabriel's going to do everything he can, and if the time comes, we'll do what we have to. If you want, when he wakes up, you can tell him goodbye. Mr. Dawson? I believe it's your turn for watch duty."

John nodded and grabbed his gun, heading to the wooden watchtower we had built. Daniel, Spencer, and Gabriel lifted Andy's heavy body and put him in his tent. Everyone else finished their dinner and headed to their own tents.

Lily walked up to me and kissed me on the cheek.

"Don't blame this on yourself," she said as if she was reading my mind. "You did everything you could."

This time, she kissed me on the lips.

That night, I tried to sleep, but I kept waking up to Andy's cries of pain. Finally I left my tent without waking Lily or Logan, my tent mates. I approached to tower where John was perched. I climbed up the ladder and sat next to him. Andy's moans resonated over the whole rooftop.

"It started about an hour ago," was all John said.

I looked down.

"I know," I said. "I couldn't sleep."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, looking over our town of St. Peters. I had never gotten to see a view like this before the world ended, but I'm sure it would be even more amazing with millions of lights dotting the land all the way to the horizon. I had lived here all my life, and I'm sad to say I had never gotten this kind of perspective of my own home. I could see my own house from here. It was full of walkers the last time I went there a few weeks ago.

Andy cried out in pain from his tent not too far away.

"It sounds like he's in a lot of pain," John said. "Gabriel came by earlier and told me it won't be long now. Problem is...no one is willing to do it."

I knew what he meant. When you were bitten or scratched by a walker, eventually you got a deadly fever. When you die, you become one of them. By shooting one of them in the brain, they die for good.

"Maybe he'll get better," I said hopefully, but all I got was a look from John.

"Yeah," he replied, "and maybe I'll go back to watching football on my plasma screen while eating wings."

We sat listening to Andy's moans of pain for another few minutes until Logan crawled out of the tent and walked over to us. He rubbed his eyes and scowled.

"Will someone just kill him already?" he said.

I looked at him surprised. How could he say something like that? How could he be so heartless? I didn't know Andy that well, only that he had been the drama teacher at my school. He was a great guy. He didn't deserve this. Before I could say something, John beat me to it.

"You want to pull the trigger? Be my guest."

What? I looked at him in surprise then back at Logan who got a strange look on his face. He turned and went back in the tent. When he came back out, he was clicking off the safety on his gun.

"Don't mind if I do," he said and walked quickly towards Andy's tent.

I looked at John. He seemed…conflicted.

"Wait! Logan!" I called.

I ran after him, and John followed me. We weaved through the tents with curious heads poking out. We found Logan in Andy's tent with a gun to Andy's head. Andy was awake, and he seemed strangely calm. Logan's hand was quivering.

"Logan?" I inched closer. No one made a move for what seemed like forever. Logan's whole body seemed to shake even more and more. Andy was drenched with sweat and either coughed or moaned in pain every other second. John remained at the doorway, silent.

Suddenly, Logan backed away quickly, dropping the gun to the floor and falling into a chair on the opposite side of the tent.

"I…I can't…I can't."

Andy closed his eyes and let out a deep breath after a brutal cough.

"It's okay," he said. "It's okay son. It's not easy to kill a man…I would know."

He looked over at John as if he just realized he was there.

"John? Did I ever tell you about my family?"

John shook his head.

"I had a wife and a daughter, John. They were both so beautiful. After all this happened, the walkers, we hunkered down in this one restaurant. One day, a man came through, a big man with a big gun. He found my family while I was out looking for supplies. He—" Tears began to flow down his face, and he choked a sob. "I found my family dead and him standing over them." He shuddered at a wheezy breath. He tried to compose himself, but he failed and broke down. "I grabbed his gun and killed him. I didn't even have time to bury my family before walkers got there. So yes, I know about killing—" He hacked up a bloody cough that racked his whole body for two straight minutes. Eventually he settled, and all he could do was weep.

I cried too. Logan buried his face in his hands, and John had to turn around. I walked forward, and picked up the gun from the floor. I stopped crying. It had to be done. Andy looked up at me as I put the barrel against his forehead.

"I want to see my family again," was all he said.

"You will," I replied.

Andy closed his eyes as I pulled the trigger.


End file.
